Freedom Sets America Apart

Jun 17, 2005

RUSH: Here’s Marcus in Tucson. Nice to have you, sir. Welcome to the program.CALLER: Thank you, Rush. It’s an honor and a privilege to be speaking with you.RUSH: Thank you, sir.CALLER: I have one main question here, and that is why is America trying to focus, or seeming to try to focus, more on Dick Durbin’s assertions about G’itmo when I lost my aunt, my mother lost her sister, my uncle lost her father, and my cousins lost their mother, and this is why this happened. This is why we’re doing this, and, frankly, I don’t get too in a rain barrel about how we treat the people who treated us in that manner. I want to know why you think that America has become so shortsighted and no longer cares about these things. RUSH: I have an easy answer to this, and there may be more than one, but the easy answer is we’re not allowed to see pictures of it anymore. The networks have all decided it’s too gory, it’s too gruesome, it’s too shocking and frightening to children, and so we don’t see regularly the pictures of the two aircraft flying into the World Trade Center, the damage done to the Pentagon, or the remnants of the crash of that field in Pennsylvania, we just don’t see it. Pearl Harbor Day, December 7th, 1941, remember it every year. We’ve had movies about it, we’ve seen pictures, there is a memorial out there, we can still see oil bubbling up from the USS Arizona. It’s haunting if you’ve been out there. I have, of course, as a well traveled and powerful, influential member of the media, number 28, by the way, on the Forbes list. But we can’t see any pictures of 9/11, we’re not allowed to. And if we did, if they showed us pictures of 9/11 every day, I guarantee people wouldn’t forget it and they wouldn’t lose the emotional attachment to it that has occurred I think in the instance of many people. Marcus, I appreciate the phone call. Thanks much. Who’s next? Anchorage, Alaska, this is Adam. Hello, sir.

CALLER: Hey, Rush, mega dittos here from the great state of Alaska. You actually helped make my college experience bearable. My question is, democracy and freedom work so well here in America because we fought for it, we died for it, our blood was shed. How can we be assured that the Iraqis will have that same appreciation? RUSH: We can’t be sure. There is a lot of faith here and I will tell you why I am willing to try it. I ask this question of people constantly. You thanked me for getting you through the college experience, so you’re relatively young. I don’t know how much you’ve traveled internationally, but if you haven’t, you someday will, and when you travel the world, you will see a stark difference in almost every aspect of the human condition, when compared to this country. Even if you go to civilized parts of the world, western Europe, Japan, you will see a marked difference in the quality of life. And for the moment here I’m not talking about political circumstances. I’m just talking about economic. You will see civilizations that have been around far longer than we have who are not nearly as advanced. You will see civilizations and cultures that are on the road to where we are, but they’re not really near it, and they have been at it for thousands of years longer than we have. And you’ll ask yourself, “Why? Why is this?” The first thing you’ll do is say, “What is it about the United States geographically, what is it about the United States that enables us to be the leader of the world?” And you’ll start looking at things like, “Well, is it because of our agriculture? Is it because of our natural resources? Is it because of the cooperation so many people on one continent have because we are part of the United States, so Arkansans freely trade with Missourians, who freely trade with Californians, we’re all Americans, is it that?”And then you’ll say, “Well, wait. It can’t all be that because we don’t have nearly enough oil to supply our own needs, we have to get that elsewhere from around the world.” Then you’ll say, “It can’t be that because when I go to the store I see all kinds of products made in China and Japan and Mexico. So what is it,” you’ll ask yourself, “what is it about us?” And then you’ll ask yourself, “Are we different human beings? Is there something about us as human beings that makes us different than, say, human beings in Africa or Asia or Europe?” And then you’ll have to conclude, no, because a human being is a human being, regardless what a human being looks like, regardless what a human being’s skin color is or where a human being is born, we’re all human beings. We’re no better than any other group of human beings, collectively or individually anywhere else on the planet. So why are we so far advanced in every which way, politically as well? Let’s bring the political system in – and you will conclude, Adam, as I have, after many experiences and asking yourself these questions, that there’s one thing that sets us apart from all these other people, and that is freedom. We as human beings here are allowed, because of the freedom we have compared to other human beings on the planet, to maximize our potential as human beings, our creativity, our industriousness, our talents. Now, we have shackles on ourselves here, we’ve got restrictions and regulations, but it’s nothing compared to people that live in totalitarian regimes run by dictators and thugs and so forth. It is therefore the conclusion, the theory is that guides our policy, President Bush’s policy, I’m sure, is that a human being has a natural yearning as a result of creation to be free and to be the best he can be. But society, culture after culture, generation after generation, when you tamp that down, step on it, you suppress it for generation after generation after generation. Now in Iraq, it’s being put to the test. And I think it’s succeeding. I think the Iraqis themselves are getting along much faster than we did in getting a Constitution. I wouldn’t say this is a lost cause, just the exact opposite. I think what’s going on over there is a sight to behold and it’s a model for the rest of that region.BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Ashley in Annapolis, Maryland. Welcome to the EIB Network. Hello.CALLER: Hi, Rush. How you doing?RUSH: Good.CALLER: I’m calling to tell you about my high school environmental science textbook. In the back there was a chapter about the different types of economic systems, and it listed the characteristics for a company operating in a capitalist economic system. One of those was withholding dangerous information from consumers about possible hazards with a product, and another was exploiting the environment in any way possible. And personally I was very angered by that. Our teacher was pretty balanced and basically told us that the book was crap. But the book was mandated by the county, and so every student in our county that took that course read that book.RUSH: What county in Maryland is Annapolis in?CALLER: Annandale County. RUSH: Oh, it’s not Montgomery because that’s where the weird stuff happens. This is not exactly normal. You know, there’s been a long pattern of this. I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember or young enough, have you ever watched Captain Planet on Saturday morning?CALLER: Yes, sir.RUSH: Well, what do you think that was about?CALLER: (Laughing.)RUSH: Captain Planet was all about inculcating young minds with the evils of corporations, a Ted Turner cartoon. You’re fortunate you’ve got a teacher here that’s putting this in perspective.CALLER: Oh, definitely.RUSH: Well, you’re also fortunate you’re able to recognize what a joke it is at the outset yourself.CALLER: I laughed out loud. I thought it was hilarious.RUSH: That’s the great. Keep laughing at it, Ashley, really, just keep laughing at it. You’ll have more people curious why you’re laughing than why you’re mad.CALLER: Nobody even thought twice about it, that’s what bothered me more than anything is nobody understood why I was angry about it.RUSH: Well, start laughing about it, and they’ll ask you, what’s so funny, Ashley?CALLER: (Laughing.)RUSH: They will. You say, “I can’t believe what I’m reading here, this is asinine and it’s in our textbook,” and they’ll say, “What do you mean?” Then bammo, you own ’em and then you can start telling them why what’s in the book is wrong.CALLER: And just the fact that it wasn’t an economics textbook. The book was not supposed to have anything to do with economics or capitalist systems or anything. It was supposed to be about the environment and, you know, earth systems.RUSH: Of course. Ashley, that’s the point, the new home since the fall of the Soviet empire, the new home of socialists and quasi-communists is the environmental movement. It’s right there in your book, it’s an attack on capitalism. Make no mistake about it. Quick time-out. Laugh at them, Ashley, and they’ll ask you why you’re laughing.END TRANSCRIPT